Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in various industrial processes requires viable carbon dioxide mitigation strategies. Capture of the carbon dioxide depends on the ability to separate the carbon dioxide from a mixture, which enables transport of the carbon dioxide and subsequent handling or sequestering of the carbon dioxide.
Factors making techniques more deployable for separating carbon dioxide include reducing costs, reducing energy requirements, and reducing the foot-print of the methods utilized during employment of the techniques. Separation approaches such as distillation are unattractive because of these reasons. Absorption processes may utilize a sorbent to remove carbon dioxide from the mixture followed by regeneration of the sorbent to liberate the carbon dioxide. Prior absorption units utilize columns or towers for direct contacting of the mixture with an absorbent fluid such as an aqueous amine. However, percentage of the carbon dioxide within the mixture and/or amount of the carbon dioxide removed dictate size, operating expense and capital expense of the units. Viability of these absorption units, which may contain inefficient mass transfer devices such as trays, begins to diminish as the amount of the gas to be separated scales up.
Therefore, a need exists for improvement of structures and methods related to hollow contact fibers and their use in gas absorption systems, such as in carbon dioxide separation systems.